


Colour Me Clueless

by PaddyMoons



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, F/M, M/M, Marauders, Multi, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-08
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-06-07 02:36:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6781975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaddyMoons/pseuds/PaddyMoons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If, when you see your soulmate, your world changes from black and white to full colour spectrum, but you don't know who sparked the change, what do you do?<br/>Remus Lupin was a tall, jumper wearing, bookworm going to Hogwarts University with his best mate, Lily Evans when his life gains colour, but he doesn't know who it was that caused it, only that if Lily kills his roommate's best friend, he really won't get a moment's peace.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Colour Me Clueless

**Author's Note:**

> Alrighty, guys, this is my first Harry Potter fan fiction, and my first WolfStar, but I love these two and I hope I do them justice for all of our sakes. Please be honest and tell me if it's trash, and how I can do better, I want to get better at this, eventually.  
> Personally, I love fluff, and smut, and wet-your-pants hilarity, so I am striving for a mashup of all three, if I can.

“Lily,” Remus groaned. “Lily, this is so stupid, why did I let you convince me this was a good idea?”

  
The two of them were standing in the center of the Hogwarts quad, gazing at the beautiful campus around them. It was set up in a square around the main quad and was several stories of ancient towers and spires; it looked positively magical, and despite the attitude he was copping, he was unbelievably excited to have an opportunity to explore the place.

  
“Because you love me, and you recognize and bow to my genius.” She flipped her long hair over her shoulder, tugging him along towards the campus map. “I love you, Remus, but if you went to school on the other side of the country from me, you’d never crack out of that shell of yours.”

  
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” he grumbled, drawing himself up to his considerable height.

  
“Sure you don’t, love.” Lily, despite her short stature, was the most terrifying human being he had ever met. They had been friends since childhood; playing in the mud by the lake together in primary school, chasing each other through high school. The fact that neither of them had discovered the colours of the world yet didn’t really bother them because they had each other to stay up late and read books with and drag each other to parties, though it was mainly Lily doing the dragging. She hadn’t been wrong to infer that she was his only friend, all he did was read and study alone or with her, occasionally pulling her along to obscure coffee shops or punk shows.

  
He didn’t look it, in his over large jumpers and scuffed trainers, but he was a die hard classic punk rock fan. He would go out to the tiny pubs in the odd neighborhoods to watch the start up bands, scrounge money for train fair to see his favourites play for the umpteenth time, dragging Lily with him to every show.

  
He accepted her point, though, she was his only friend, and despite her devilish charm and cunning little pranks. Hopefully, this year he could find some other friends to share some of his better ideas with.

  
“C’mon, chum, we’ve got to get our room keys, and pick up our books for tomorrow.”

  
They navigated the twisting, cavernous halls of the school, finding everything they had needed and some. Upon their discovery of the library, progress towards any goal was halted as they ‘oohed’ over three floors packed with tomes on every subject imaginable. Eventually, however, Remus reminded Lily of dorm keys and, maybe, having a place to set their many texts and supplies down so they wouldn’t have to carry them while exploring. Reluctantly, she agreed, and they headed in search of Gryffindor Tower.

  
Finding it, they were left dumbstruck; in place of a door to, what could only be assumed was the tower itself, was a larger than life portrait of a robust woman in an extraordinarily voluminous, and ruffled dress. Next to the portrait was a long folding table, behind which several people were handing out key cards and information pamphlets. Each person had a designated alphabet group that they were evidently in charge of speed things up.

  
Once they reached the front of their lines, they were handed stacks of pamphlet and information sheets on the facilities the campus offered, parties that the upperclassmen were throwing in Gryffindor Tower, study groups the Ravenclaws were hosting, and other pertinent information.

  
Lily swiped her card and the two of them passed through the portrait hole, shuffling the papers in their hands to find their room numbers and roommates. The Gryffindor common room was a large and round, decorated cozily with squashy armchairs and couches set up around low tables, beautiful drapes around the many windows, and in the center of the far wall, a large hearth with a roaring fire. On the walls hung portraits and stills of supper parties, men in powdered wigs, and beautiful northern moors. Remus was sure that what little he could see of the wallpaper, as well as the furniture, would be in house colours, though he wasn’t certain.

  
“I’m room two-oh-four, girls side, with Marlene McKinnon,” she read from her paper. “You?”

  
With a certain amount of trepidation, Remus read his own sheet. “Two-oh-eight, with Peter Pettigrew.”

  
“Okay, well, let’s meet down here in half an hour, then? We can, hopefully, meet our roommates and get settled before going for lunch and some coffee at the shop near the library.”

  
His brow quirked and she grinned at him before bounding up the stairs of her dormitory. Marvelling over her excitement at the prospect of introducing new people to their lives, he slowly made his way up the stairs with his books and papers, to find his room and the new parties to which he would have to adjust.

* * *

 

  
His arrival at the open door of his dorm was met with a loud squeak of protest and a flurry of movement that had Remus thoroughly confused, stalk still in the doorway for several moments afterward. 

  
“Er,” he paused, completely nonplussed.

  
“Hello,” a friendly voice responded, emanating from a bespectacled man on the dressed bed of the two. “Sorry about that, mate, he was just changing. Are you the dorm mate, Remus?”

  
“Er, yeah,” he stepped into the room, fumbling slightly with his books. “Um, my belongings are coming, we just have to call Lily’s parents. You’re not Peter, are you?”

  
“Oh, bugger me, I’m James Potter, I’m next door with my best mate, Sirius. Peter’s our mate from primary school, we’ve been together, the three of us, for years. Who is Lily?”

  
The gangly guy on the bed had visibly perked at the mention of her name, evidently hopeful. “My best mate, our families are very close, so we grew up together. Her sister was right pissed that Lily got in here when she couldn’t. I warn you, though, she has an extremely low tolerance for bull shite.”

  
James grinned full of teeth and winked behind his glasses. Oh, yes, Lily was going to have a lot of fun with him.

  
“There’s a party this evening, by the lake, it should be wicked. You should come with your friend, meet some new people, yeah?”

  
Remus shuffled uncomfortably, sorting the papers he was given, and placing his books in order on the shelf above his desk, before answering. “I don’t really enjoy—“

  
“You could meet Sirius,” James burst out, leaping to his feet. He moved with the grace and confidence of someone that knew what their body was capable of, and exactly how to use it. Remus could feel a tickle of jealousy unfurling in his chest. “He’s great, a little mad sometimes, but you get used to it.”

  
Remus cringed internally, mentally calculating the many ways that this could certainly bite him in the arse. “I’m sure Lily will want to come,” he grumbled, watching a round faced young man, that must be his roommate, extricate himself from the closet as James prattled on about Sirius and the party that evening. “Are you Peter, then?”

  
The boy blushed profusely, sticking out a hand. “Peter Pettigrew, sorry,” he cleared his throat. “I forget that this git doesn’t know how to close a bloody door when he’s over.”

  
James grinned sheepishly, ruffling his hair and shrugged. “I’m just stopping by to pick this one up to help Pads with his family; crazy as a bag of cats, them.” He checked his watch, yelping and ushering Peter out the door in a rush, shouting goodbyes and promises of a proper introduction later. Remus shuddered at the thought of them in his life full-time; the amount of energy in those two, and the promise of more even in this Sirius character, he would never be given any peace an quiet.

  
He tugged his mobile out of his pocket and shot a quick text to Lily to let her know to meet him in the common room in five to get their things from her parents. Before he left the dorm room, however, he scribbled a note for Peter with his number in case of emergency, though he had a feeling he was likely going to regret it in the future. He found Lily in the common room with a beautiful dark haired girl, chopped short and edgy, that she introduced as Marlene McKinnon, her roommate.

  
Apparently, she had offered to help them ferry their things from the Evans’ car outside to their dorms. As they were emptying the car onto the lovely and truly beautiful four wheeled cart, Remus could not fully express how much he loved the bloody cart, because it meant that he didn’t have to lug both his and Lily’s books through the whole bloody school to Gryffindor Tower. The thing could even carry all their belongings, without having to make another trek to the car, for which he would never stop being grateful. The trips up and down the Gryffindor Tower stairs, however, were a special kind of hell, especially with boxes of books. Why in all bloody hell did he have so many books? He was also very glad that Marlene and her girlfriend Dorcas had offered to help Lily, so that he wouldn’t have to do both sets of books, and stairs.

  
When they had been leading the cart of belongings through the halls, it had come out that Marlene actually knew James, and subsequently Peter and Sirius, from their parents. He marveled at their association, until he saw the two interacting; they were both full of energy and mischief, and extremely outgoing, but hers came with calm grace and nonchalance, as opposed to his bubbling enthusiasm. Watching as Marlene introduced him to Lily, he shuddered and mounted the stairs with the last of his things, glad to set up his room and get himself settled before anything too emotionally taxing took place. On the first floor landing, he ran into Peter again.

  
“Hey, mate,” he grumbled. “Want some help?”

  
“Er, yeah,” Remus agreed, handing him a bag of clothing and one of the boxes. “Thanks. What’s wrong?”

  
“James met a new bird.” He did not sound pleased. “He wouldn’t stop going on, to her, about her beautiful copper hair, or the stunning ivory crème of her skin, it was as if Sirius and I no longer existed, nor the rest of the world. Bloody soulmate, colour-happy git.”

  
Remus’ eyebrows reached for his hairline. “Seriously, he found his colour mate in the common room?”

  
“Yeah,” he mumbled, opening their door. “Bloody lucky she stopped when Marlene did, or he probably wouldn’t have known it was her that had caused it.”

  
Everything was put away, save the box under Remus’ suddenly still hands. “Wait, what?” Peter’s response was forestalled, however, by his phone’s buzzing in his pocket. An SOS from Lily blinked across the screen. “C’mon.”

  
“What,” Peter squeaked, following close behind as he rushed down the stairs. “What’s wrong?”

  
“The girl that coloured your friend’s world?” The two of them popped out of the stairwell to see Lily, spitting mad, glaring at a bemused James with his glasses slightly askew. Behind James stood an elegantly beautiful young man, grey eyes sparking with laughter at the scene before him. “Yeah, that would be Lily.”

  
“Oh, no,” Peter mumbled, behind him.

  
“I see you’ve met James,” Remus probed, stepping forward. Both parties turned to look at him, but he kept his eyes on Lily. “He’s a friend of my roommate’s, perfectly harmless, I’m sure.”

  
She snorted derisively, but her eyes showed relief at his arrival.

  
“Let’s go grab some coffee, the two of us.” He gestured to the portrait hole and scanned the onlookers, tugging her around so that she could no longer see the object of her disapproval.

  
“I’m game,” James piped up. “There’s this small shop in the village, very quaint—“

  
“I’m sure Peter would love to join you,” Remus cut across him, turning for a moment and shaking his head. Lily pulled him backwards through the portrait hole.

  
“Thank you,” Lily whispered, clutching his arm as they descended the stairs.

  
“What the bloody hell happened, Lils?”

  
She explained, clenching her fists with frustration, that upon James’ apparent colouring, he had immediately assumed that they ought to go to dinner and become familiar with one another.

  
“Because, of course, my panties just dropped at the sight of his perfectly tousled brown hair, and his superb muscle tone, who wouldn’t want to date such a conceited arse?” Her voice was laden with sarcasm. “The oh, so romantic, assumption that I would go to dinner was nothing to the horrendously sexist remark that preceded it; ‘Well, hello, beautiful. You’re much better than I could ever have hoped for.’ What the bloody hell was he thinking? That his perfect tan and deep, brown eyes would get him through everything?” She paused momentarily, breathing as if she’d just been running.

  
“His eyes weren’t quite brown, though, more hazel, if you asked me. That doesn’t discount his obvious misstep, though. Who starts a conversation like that with ‘Hello, beautiful?’ So, passé.” She gaped at him, paying for her coffee. “What? Besides, I believe the colour of his eyes, or his abominable hairstyle, is not the point here, you found colour in a guy that is, from my brief interactions with him, dorky, eager, mischievous, and rather kind. He does seem to share the belief that many men do, though, that the girl that colours their world is simply going to drop everything to fulfill their destiny, or what have you. It’s a load of utter bollocks if, you ask me. He’s just lucky you aren’t still dating monsieur skeeze-ball.”

  
“We were never dating, you dolt!”

  
“Uh-huh,” Remus nodded, sipping his chai and giving her an austere look. “Sure, love. The slimy little twat thought you hung the moon, and you thought you were best mates, but he was a grease ball of epic proportions. My point is, our friend James would eat him alive if he were still around.”

  
She grumbled incoherently for a few moments, while he assessed their surroundings. The beige, stone walls rose high on either side, covered in old paintings and tapestries, alive with colour. The opposite wall was mostly windows, looking out over the greenhouses and the groundskeeper’s cabin at the edge of the forest.

  
“Where are we?” She asked, gazing out the window.

  
“Astronomy wing, I think.”

  
“Did you memorize the campus map?”

  
He shook his head. “Look at the paintings; mostly space or telescope related, and the tapestry over there is a star chart, though why the sky is mauve, I really couldn't tell you.”

  
“It’s gorgeous.” She paced across the hall to join him, examining the stitching. “How do we get back?”

  
He pulled the tapestry away from the wall, revealing a narrow staircase leading down. “Adventure?”

  
Her lips quirked into a mischievous smile, green eyes sparkling dangerously. “You know it.”

  
Together they descended the passage, finding themselves two floors below, in the main corridor. Several people, obviously with the same intentions, passed them on their way back to Gryffindor Tower.

  
“Who was it?” They were just descending the last stairs to the Fat Lady when Lily changed the subject.

  
“Sorry?”

  
“You can see colour, so who was it that changed you?” They flopped down onto a couch on one end of the room. When the bewilderment persisted on her friend’s features, she explained. “You commented on the hazel of James’ eyes, the lurid pink of the Fat Lady’s dress, and have mentioned, twice now, the vibrant copper of my hair. So, spill.”

  
He paused, nonplussed, he had no idea. It had to have been when Lily had called him down to help with James, but the common room had been full of people watching the altercation, and he couldn’t remember where it had started from.

  
“Must have been when you and James met, but there were so many people, I don’t know who it was.”

  
“You’re serious? Bugger.” She tucked her feet under her, pensive. “You’re sure don’t know?”

  
“No, they probably do, though.”

  
“What do you mean?”

  
“We were in the middle of the room, and, because of you and James, everyone was staring at us, so whoever it was would have had an unimpeded view of me. Whatever, I’ve been surviving this long, not knowing, now I get to do it with a little bit more colour.”

  
“I suppose that’s true,” she laughed.

  
“Did you want to go this party tonight? Peter said it was by the lake, some Hufflepuffs are organizing it.”

  
“Since when do you invite me out to a social event that doesn’t involve obscure music, or poetry readings?”

  
He shrugged. “Peter and James asked me, but,” he quickly changed tacks. “We don’t have to go with them, I’m just, I know you wanted to have some fun before classes start, and I’m sure Marlene and Dorcas will want to come.”

  
He flagged the two girls over as he spoke, wordlessly begging for assistance.

  
“Yeah,” Marlene grinned. “We’d love to go with you lot.”

  
Lily rolled her eyes at their efforts, allowing herself to be towed up to her room by the two girls. He watched them go, hoping that they would have better luck convincing her that James wasn’t as horrible as she was determined to believe he was. He hadn’t seemed so bad when they had met, definitely not hard on the eyes, if a bit high energy.  
Seeing very little choice, now that Lily was preparing for that damned thing, Remus mounted the stairs to change his clothes. It’s not like it would matter hugely, as he had no desires to impress anyone, but Lily would commit murder if he went looking like a librarian. Pawing through his clothes, he chose his favourite jumper and some green corduroys that Lily had given him last fall. He had stripped and was just pulling his pants on when Peter entered the room, followed closely by a rather distraught James, and their long haired friend from the common room.

  
“I’m pretty sure you didn’t do anything wrong, mate, she just didn’t appreciate your charms,” Peter was saying. “That’s not your fault. You are colour mates after all, she can’t hate you forever.”

  
“I’m sure she’ll try,” the other chuckled, sitting down on Remus’ bed, across from Peter and James. “She seemed rather stubborn, that’s not an attractive trait in a mate, man.”  
“But I don’t understand what went wrong,” James wined. “She’s beautiful, I was just being honest.”

  
Remus huffed impatiently, pulling his jumper on over his t-shirt. “She hates you on principle, you’re an arrogant, eager male, one that just assumed that she would do as expected and start up with you immediately because you’re meant to be. It’s sexist.” He scoffed, sitting down next to the man on his bed. “You just altered her expectations for her immediate future and she wasn’t prepared for it. You’re also exactly not the type of person she was expecting you to be. You may be perfect for each other, by the universe’s standards, but in her life right now, you’re not.”

  
Scrubbing his face with his hands, he leaned back against the wall with a sigh.

  
“Are you two dating, or something?” With his eyes closed, Remus missed the look that passed between James and the guy beside him that had spoken. He choked a laugh, banging his head off the wall.

  
“Sorry, what?”

  
“You and the robin.”

  
It took almost a full minute for him to stop laughing this time, he was still chuckling when he spoke again. “Bloody hell, she’s my best mate, we grew up together.”

  
“Oh,” James deflated.

  
“So, er,” Remus shifted to look at the man next to him. “Who’re you?”

  
“Sorry, mate,” James spoke from his prone position on the bed. “Remus, this is Sirius, my best mate. Sirius, this is Remus, Peter’s roommate.”

  
There was the barest hint of laughter in James’ voice at the end of his statement, but staring between them both, Remus couldn’t find the reason. Peter looked as if he might explode, his face nearly the colour of a radish.

“Alright there, Peter?”

  
The boy squeaked and busied himself finding a suitable outfit for the evening.

  
“He’s blocked up,” James snickered, chucking a pillow at his head. “Needs to learn how to keep things under wraps.”

  
Before he could ask what the hell they were talking about, Peter had returned the pillow and missed, somehow hitting Remus instead. He laughed, tossing it back at James, and before any of them could fully enjoy the ensuing war, the door slammed open.

  
“You’re joking, right?”

  
“Hello, Marl, care to join?”

  
“You know, I love a good pillow fight as much as the next girl, but we have a party to get to.”

  
Sirius stood, following James out of the room. The bespectacled young man looked pained as he passed the group of women outside the door, jaw working as he evidently tried not to say anything to the redhead.

  
“You look radiant, Evans.” Remus sighed, shaking his head at the futility of their concerted efforts to save his skin. She bristled, but Sirius steered his friend away, muttering something in his ear as they went.

  
“You coming, Peter?”

  
“Yeah,” he squeaked. “I need to change first, but I’ll meet you down there.”

  
Remus nodded, closing the door behind him before following the girls down the hall, Sirius and James already disappearing down the stairs. Lily opened her mouth, but Dorcas’ hand on her arm stayed whatever she might have said, settling them into a strange silence as they descended the stairs.

**Author's Note:**

> Please, comment and review, I want to hear people's thoughts! There will be more, hopefully several chapters worth.


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